The Art of Doing It

The Art of Doing It

L'Art d'en Faire is a circus arts school founded in 2008 and located in Joyeuse, in southern Ardèche. Its project is distinguished by a profoundly educational and social conception of the circus: the association is part of the principles of popular education and uses artistic practices as tools for learning, expression, autonomy, emancipation and collective construction.

The association's main location is at Trait d'Union, 4 rue de Soulège in Joyeuse . However, L'Art d'en Faire's activities extend far beyond this location: the school's influence covers the entire southern Ardèche region, develops numerous projects in partnership with local authorities, and also has a branch offering regular courses in Aubenas .

The school welcomes a wide variety of people. Children, teenagers, adults and seniors can regularly practice circus arts, while other activities are specifically designed for young people at risk of dropping out or entering the workforce, people with disabilities and various groups supported by educational and social actors in the area.

Educational project and disciplines

The association uses circus arts to develop three main sets of skills:

• Concentration, rigor and perseverance .
• Self-confidence and knowledge of one's abilities.
• Cooperation and the ability to collectively build a project.

The teaching approach explicitly rejects the logic of competition. Individual and collective expression are prioritized, and learning situations are adapted to the characteristics of individuals and groups. The school thus aims to allow each student to progress at their own pace while fully participating in a collective dynamic.

The Art of Making It doesn't separate circus from other art forms: dance, theatre, music, visual arts, and audiovisual media can all be incorporated into projects. This openness helps to evolve technical skills into a genuine artistic creation process.

The school is also developing a branch in Aubenas . This location allows it to expand its reach and offer regular workshops to families who do not live in the immediate vicinity of Joyeuse.

Holiday camps are another important part of the project. They allow participants to discover several families of disciplines or to deepen their knowledge of certain techniques.

• Multidisciplinary workshops generally combining aerial arts, acrobatics, object balancing and juggling.
• Space is given to the creation of a show.

This initiative is not a marginal activity: the association is building a genuine hub around adapted circus arts, inclusion, and disability. Projects are designed to address individual and collective needs, in accordance with the school's pedagogical principle of adapting practices and methods to the people involved.

L'Art d'en Faire notably participated in the PARI – Parasport Rurality Inclusion action-research project, which focused on the challenges of accessing sports activities in rural areas of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. This participation illustrates the association's ongoing work on the accessibility of artistic and physical activities in rural settings.

Social circus is another pillar of its work. Some projects are developed in collaboration with local communities and stakeholders in education, social integration, and the social sector. Circus then becomes a tool for restoring confidence, fostering engagement, recreating a collective dynamic, and supporting individual journeys.

The Passerelle Jeunes program particularly illustrates this approach. Developed notably with the Mission Locale of Southern Ardèche, it uses artistic practice and projects as tools to re-engage young people experiencing difficulties in their lives.

The emphasis placed on adolescents and their autonomy is also reflected in La Fabrique . This program combines circus practice and creation, allowing a group of young people to build a genuine artistic project: they gradually take part in the choices, the creation, the performances, and the various cultural experiences linked to the project.

• 2026-2027 Season: cultural outings and participation in events (Circus Night, Circus Days).
• Performances are scheduled to begin in March.
• Youth participation in supervising children's workshops during certain outings.

International engagement is also part of this dynamic. L'Art d'en Faire has experience in organizing meetings between young circus artists in France and other European countries (meetings in La Chaux-de-Fonds with young people from Switzerland, Belgium, France, and Palestine). These meetings use circus arts as a common language between young people from different backgrounds and cultures.

The school also offers CIRQ'OUVERT , an unsupervised free training space that allows independent practitioners to have a place and equipment to train, exchange and develop their practice outside of traditional classes.

L'Art d'en Faire develops numerous projects outside its usual premises : its rural focus leads the association to move its staff and equipment to meet with local residents. Workshops, training sessions, educational projects, and special events are thus organized in various towns and villages in southern Ardèche.

The aim of this itinerant project is not only to bring residents to the school in Joyeuse, but also to create opportunities for artistic practice in communities sometimes far from the main cultural facilities.

The association works with schools, local authorities, youth organizations, social service providers, and various cultural partners. These collaborations allow the use of circus arts in a wide range of contexts, from artistic discovery to long-term projects built around educational or social objectives.

The school places great importance on encounters with live performance. Amateur practice is linked to outings, artists, creations and professional events, allowing students to understand that circus constitutes a genuine contemporary artistic field.

• For 2026-2027: amateur teaching, internships, adolescent creation, adult and senior practice.
• Open training (CIRQ'OUVERT), adapted circus, inclusion of disability.
• Social circus, youth remobilization, territorial interventions and cultural encounters.

L'Art d'en Faire is much more than a school offering a few weekly classes: its work transforms circus arts into a tool for cultural and social development across southern Ardèche. Artistic practice becomes a way to create connections between people, generations, communities, and regions.

In Joyeuse, as in Aubenas and in its many touring projects, the association champions an accessible, collective, and non-competitive circus. Juggling, acrobatics, balancing, and aerial arts are used to learn techniques, but above all to develop confidence, perseverance, cooperation, expression, and autonomy.

This articulation between artistic teaching, popular education, inclusion, social circus and territorial development makes L'Art d'en Faire a particularly unique structure in the landscape of French circus schools.